Summoning Sickness
by gibbousmoons
Summary: An archive of my different ZnT crossover ideas, one shots, and plot bunnies. Most will never see continuation.
1. Satan

Taking a dirt nap. Zonked. Insensible. Out of it.

Mr. Maaku 'Hercule' Satan was no stranger to being knocked out, regrettably. He was well familiar with waking up to the unexpected darkness of his eyelids, and even more familiar with fighting dirty cheaters and scammers of all types. He was less familiar with being a familiar, which was good, because he wasn't one.

That was his dog.

Why was he so damp? Had his darling Videl won another of their sparring sessions and knocked him through a wall again? He hoped not, the plumber didn't like to do short notice jobs, not even for him.

Somehow, he thought as he shook the grogginess out of his head and stood back up, broken branches shifting beneath his feet, he had to stop her from beating her old man like that- at least where the cameras could see. _The cameras didn't see,_ _did they?!_

Mr. Satan opened his eyes, and remembered where he was. Tristain. Near some kind of school for ki users. He'd chased Bee through a green portal in the air and appeared in a green field, arriving to the sight of his dog sitting on top of a little girl and licking her face.

He'd decided to stay a while, not influenced at all by the fact that the portal closed behind him. Nope, not the incredible Mr. Satan. He was definitely not trapped on some planet who-knows-how-far from Earth, and even if he was, he hadn't triggered his locator beacon as soon as he'd figured that out.

Louise, the girl who'd summoned his dog through the portal, was in front of him holding Bee in her arms. "Are you all right Mr. Satan?" She asked, obviously worried about him.

"Don't worry, the Great Mr. Satan could never be injured by tricks like that!" He boomed, and fluffed his hair back into place with one hand. "I'm the world champ, doncha know? I've taken worse hits and kept on going. Now where'd the masked man go?"

"I'm still right here." A baritone voice rang out from the other side of the courtyard, behind him. Mr. Satan spun around and put his considerable bulk between the mystery man and the smallest of his students, forcing his boiling blood to calm. There was a hostage. "I couldn't leave without seeing the commoner that subverted one of my most valuable tools." The cloaked and masked noble had a sword held to miss Longueville's throat, the little bit of his face left visible was thrown into shadow by the backlight of the cottage burning behind him.

"Why are you doing this?" Louise shouted. "Miss Longueville's a valued member of the staff at the academy, but that's it! There's nothing she has you want!" She pointed her broken wand at the masked man, who flinched slightly at her accusations.

He didn't loosen his grip, though. "So that's how she got in. Ha! Imagine, the sole remaining legitimate heir to Albion hiding as a part of the hired help, in addition to aiding a _monster_ escape her reward. Where is the half-elf anyway?"

Mr. Satan took a step toward the wind mage, hands held up. "Easy, there's no need for melodramatics." Bee sniffed at the hypocrisy. "See, I'm unarmed, and you've ruined Ms. de La Vallière's wand. My name is Maaku Satan, and I'm the owner of the dog Louise here summoned last Spring. If you want to know where Ms. Tiffania is, I'm sorry to say you missed her. She's been living at the academy under Headmaster Osmond's protection for a few days now, and I'm sure she wouldn't like to be called a monster. There's at least a little bit of good in everyone, and she seems like a fine young woman to me." He took another small step forward, and made sure his face was open and his muscles weren't tensed.

"You know what she is, and you defend her anyway? That's the last thing Halkegania needs right now. We can't afford that kind of thought when there are this many lives on the line. Once we get to the Holy Land, we can be merciful, but not now. We need the powers of another void mage to be sure we can take the Holy Land, and save everyone."

"The easy way isn't always the best way." Mr. Satan's voice was a calm counter point to the other man's frustrated rant. "Have you tried talking to the people there already?"

The masked man threw his hand back and laughed, so he didn't notice Mr. Satan's quick movement. One, two, three steps forward. "They're _elves_." He said, as if that explained everything, and perhaps it did, to him. "You can't talk to them, they're too different!"

"Everyone. Everyone has what it takes to be a hero within them, no matter how deep inside it's buried. You're doing the right thing." Louise gasped, and the masked man's lips, almost all of his face that was visible, opened in a smile above his neatly trimmed beard.

"Yes! It isn't nice, it isn't pleasant, but I'm just doing what needs to be done." Some of the tension drained from him, and he lowered his sword slightly, though it was still dangerously close to Ms. Longueville's neck.

"But the right thing isn't always the best thing." Mr. Satan shook his head, and rubbed his bald spot. "I've made friends with people that've been called monsters before, and my daughter married someone I might have thought of as a half-monster, once. He may have been a nice boy, but some people just can't think of the real him as anything other than a monster's son, just because of what kind of person his father is."

He fixed the masked man with his eyes, suddenly sharp and hard as obsidian flecks. "It's always worth it to try and talk things out. People don't have to die just because you didn't get along the last time you met. There's always room for a second chance, take it from someone who's had one."

The two men stared at each other for half a minute, then the masked man nodded. "I can't promise anything, but I can try talking things out with her." He lowered his sword.

The moustached man faded away, and last thing Wardes heard before the darkness claimed him was "Hercule Fearful Fist!".

And then there was pain. Darkness and pain.


	2. Saffron

I own neither Ranma ½, nor ZnT, nor any other published works. If you skip this section, and claim that my lack of disclaimer in the following chapters means I'm violating site rules, then you must be the kind of person that skips to the middle of a book and complains that they don't know what's going on.

XIXI

It is widely acknowledged that the most promising result a budding fire mage can summon is a dragon. Failing to summon a dragon (for such is the providence of square class mages in the making, and even most Tristainian nobles believe themselves _that_ powerful in school), the premier alternative is a salamander. Magical, large, and fire-aspected.

"I'll call you Flame!" Kirche chirped, and bent over at the waist to kiss her newly summoned salamander on its forehead.

Louise did _not _stare, unlike the male half of the class. Professor Colbert coughed into his hand, the sole exception. "Yes yes, Ms. Zerbst. A fine summoning, but there are others waiting to summon their familiars, so if you would be so kind?"

Kirche had summoned a salamander. _Kirche_. Louise stared at the circle with dread. If even Kirche, stupid big breasted Kirche, could summon so majestic a familiar spirit how could she fail? Why was she so afraid? Other students entered the circle one by one and summoned their familiar, very few as impressive as Kirche. Tabitha summoned some kind of dragon.

It was her turn, and Colbert was watching her, concern clear on his face. Why should he be concerned? She was a Valliere, how _dare_ he assume she wanted his concern, that she needed his worry. She couldn't fail. She wouldn't fail! It was simple, and noone had ever failed to summon a familiar during the Spingtime Summoning. Her pedigree was flawless, her theoretical knowledge surpassed some of the upper year students'!

Perhaps it would have been for the best if she hadn't cast such a far-reaching magic while angry. It's almost certain the original wording wouldn't have had the same result.

"My servant, who lies somewhere beyond, my most potent, majestic, and superior servant, hear my call!" The circle flared to life, and the murmering that had started when her fellow students heard her incantation was snuffed out.

Oh well.

-  
A man with gold and red streaked hair opens his eyes from where he lies in the hot mud. He had failed, and now he was going to die, half buried under the cursed waters that had brought him to the height of his power. He'd lost it. He'd lost everything- his power was spent, his wings shorn off, his people. Himself! He'd forgotten why he'd gone so far, just like he always did! Without his heat the mountain would grow cold, and his people would die.

Why had he risked himself?

To kill some ignorant groundling? Had he gone _that_ insane under the influence of his true power? He'd seen the skill the stupid cripple had, he'd realized he had the one weapon that could freeze him so deeply he'd never heal. Perhaps it was for the best he was dying, with cooling mud forming a sticky shell around him. At least the remnants of his people would be able to choose a new-

That was odd.

He could have sworn he couldn't feel anything, that he was nearly frozen solid. How did he know the mud was sticky?

He'd felt something. He was _healing._

-  
Louise was smiling, but it looked like more like a snarl than any smile Colbert had seen in a long time. He'd been so proud when the circle lit to Louise's incantation. The poor child couldn't even get sub-dot spells to work reliably, and certain people were beginning to wonder whether or not she should be in the academy at all. A summoned familiar would be the perfect proof that she was a mage, and the problem was probably something silly the other teachers had overlooked. _Was that a real wand she was using? Perhaps it was replaced with a fake, not even the best mage could cast without a proper focus. _

She was nearly screaming now with barely repressed triumph. "I wish! I beg you! Familiar appear before me!"

As a blast of smoke and fire exploded from the circle in front of his student, Colbert paused his thoughts. _I wonder what she summoned?_

XIXI

The man sat up.

He could feel it, power pure and simple rushing into him with such power that he couldn't stop it. He didn't want to stop it! He knew he'd been thinking about something, but it wasn't important now, not with the mind-numbing feeling of _so much power_ echoing in his head.

It was like his ascension all over again, except ten times, no a hundred times as intense!

He stood up, his golden wings flaring out behind him, streams of fire forming a burning mandala as they spread from his feet and dripped from his wings. He dimly saw Kiima, and he gave her a bow and a giddy smile before he held out his hand. The Gekkaja was in the whelp's hands, or the elder groundling's, but that didn't matter. It was the tool of fire, and he _was_ fire.

Molten metal flowed from his outstretched palm and into the shape of the familiar staff.

There was a green oval in front of him, a portal to another place, the place where his benefactor lay. What king of heaven had healed him? Who would have the power to claim him as their own?

He flew through the portal without a second thought. The flightless fools could wait.

Who dared command Saffron, Lord on Pheonix Mountain, King of his kind?

Who would be the first of these poor flightless fools to die?

XIXI

to myself. "Self, who's the single most overpowered character from Ranma Louise could summon? How long would it take for Tristain (or at least the academy) to be reduced to rubble? I answered the first one, but the second is giving me trouble.

For those of you who didn't catch it, the summoning was Saffron, the final volume boss from Ranma 1/2.


	3. Osmond

You know what? I've been thinking about what might happen if Saito knocks Louise out and _runs for it_, instead of trying to fight the Reconquista fleet. So now I've got an idea for a world where Henrietta, Louise, and Saito are all in Germania, and the insane genius of Osmond the Magnesium is needed again. I also gave the head cook a bit of a backstory.

Don't look for the normal gang here, because they're in a completely different country.

XIXI

Deep in the bowels of Tristain Magical Academy, a very important man resigned himself to his fate. Marteau was the head cook of the academy, a position which gave him nearly unprecedented power over the serving staff that took care of the mages who lived within the repurposed castle's sturdy walls. He was the one that made sure everyone else got to eat.

He also made sure that… certain people… took their medicine. Mostly that duty, like much of the less important cooking, was delegated to lesser cooks and helpers, but not the medicine he held in his hand. If anyone other than the late Queen (peaceful be her rest) and her close confidants knew the headmaster responsible for their children's schooling went through his day drugged to the gills, he'd probably lose his job.

And his head. Drugging nobility was unheard of, and even the knowledge that her mother was unhealthily fond of his tarts would move Princess Henrietta to support him if he were caught. That was the problem. Princess Henrietta- _wasn't_. Officially speaking, she was in Germania, in exile.

The head cook's hand clenched around the damning bottle of amber glass. It would be dangerous, but he knew what he had to do.

Founder save them all, but he couldn't let Reconquista get their hands on the students. He'd do anything.

XIXI

Some minutes later, he knocked on Old Osmond's door. An soft voice called, "Who is it? It can't be teatime already, I just had lunch."

Marteau took a deep breath, squared his shoulders, and opened the door. Old Osmond was sitting behind his desk, staring forlornly at Ms. Longueville's deserted seat. "Headmaster. I assume you've heard the news?" He'd start with something simple, like the overturning of all that was good and holy in the world.

Osmond stroked his beard absently. "Yes. Reconquista, isn't it."

"Yes." He steeled himself, this would be the hard part. "I can also assume, then, that you might know about the late Queen's orders, regarding your medication." He licked his lips. "I think that this- this represents a 'dark and dire threat', don't you, sir?"

"Yes." He nodded, still fixated on the empty chair.

Marteau slumped in relief. "Then I'll stop with the dosing immediately, and in a few days, you can make a decision about what the Academy is going to do." He turned smartly and walked towards the door at a brisk walk. "Now I need to get back to the kitchens to start with the tea, so if your lordship doesn't mind me-"

"Hold it." Gone was the soft voice, the rising and falling of an overly-relaxed mind. Osmond hadn't changed his posture, the cook noticed with dread as he faced his employer, but there was a charge in the air that hadn't been there before. "I need the news, and you might know things I don't, rumors and the like."

Osmond raised his head to face the larger man, and Marteau forgot he'd ever called the man 'old'. No old man had eyes that cut so deeply. "Tell me what you know about the current situation."

The kitchen staff had to make tea themselves, and dinner was lacking a certain something as well, perhaps due to the head cook being locked in the headmaster's office with Old Osmond. Perhaps, the serving staff gossiped, they were dreaming up new ways of spying on the upper years?

After all, what else could Osmond be thinking about?

XIXI

"No, that'll never work." Marteau's tongue had been loosened by half a bottle of wine. "If you try and turn the upper years into soldiers then the whole school turns into a military target, and they'll just shoot us full of holes from a mile away with cannons!"

"Of course it'll work!" The other half had gone down Osmond's throat. "I'm a square class earth mage. There's no cannon that can knock down one of my walls!"

"And what about when they just land troops? I remember some of the campaigns the Heavy Wind went on; would you make the students go through that? Half would die as soon as they stepped onto the field, and half the rest would be mutilated!"

"Golems!" Osmond yelled back at the other red-faced man. "Hundreds of damned golems everywhere! A quarter of the students are earths too, and they can all make golems to fight with."

"That's…" The ex-soldier paused, lowering his accusing finger. "That's actually a really good idea. If we make them come in, we can just feed 'em to the golems. How'd we stop a siege, then?" He asked.

Osmond's face (what was visible behind the beard, anyway) crinkled as he grinned. "Follow me into the treasure room. I've got a secret to show you."

As he followed the aged mage through a mess of secret passages, coming into the vault via a secret passage that completely bypassed the locked door, Marteau had a sudden thought. "So, if you haven't been taking your medicine, who has been?"

"Why do you think I haven't been taking my medicine like a good aging headmaster?"

"Because you're acting more like the man that killed hundreds in the blink of an eye, instead of somebody who's been taking opium for twelve years, and I know the difference. Actually, how_did_ you do that thing with the explosion? I mean, we were outnumbered ten to one one second, the next you had Colbert shoot a spark at them and the whole company of mercenaries exploded."

Osmond paused for a second, before tapping the wall with his wand. He said, "I transmuted the ground beneath their feet into a compound of Magnesia that I'd discovered a few weeks previous. It's just a few dot spells. It was remarkably simple, nothing like Karin does, or Colbert. I wasn't very inventive in my youth."

He stepped into the secret passage he'd opened in the vault's wall, walking down a steep set of stairs. "I just… made it bigger. It reached half a foot, a foot down, something like that."

He stopped, looking back at the head cook with a familiar twinkle in his eye, Chuchu peeking out from the collar of his shirt. "And I haven't had opium for the past two years. I've been extracting it and feeding it to de Gramont. His father was the _rudest_ man…"

He swung his staff at the wall to his right, tearing through the painting of a wall and stepping into another room, this one filled with stack upon stack of neatly labeled crates. Osmond opened one up and held up a small brown rock for Marteau to see. "Windstones are funny things. They're more like the old magic elves use than the proper kind, but not quite. Not many people know about it, but you can sort of… change the way they face, like retuning a magnet."

Marteau had served enough arguing students desert to know what that meant. "You mean?"

Osmond pushed his hand into the wall, then pulled it back out. The stone was completely undisturbed. "I wonder what the poor fools running Reconquista will think when they find out the Tristain Academy of Magic has moved," he paused for dramatic effect, "underground?"


	4. Yuri

I've been told that _'Yuri'_ isn't supposed to sprung on people out of nowhere, so here it is.

This snip contains unhealthy amounts of _'Yuri'_, and you shouldn't read it unless you are of mental age to, for instance, view moderately violent things without shouting for censorship.

Again, much gratuitous _'Yuri'_ action within.

XIXI

The young queen caught hold of her childhood friend's arm, and Louise found she couldn't move away, despite the lightness of her grip. "Please. I- I need to confess something."

Louise turned to face her queen, and saw that she was red faced, and her other hand was bunched into a worried fist above her breast. "What? Don't tell me you love him too, Saito's my familiar, he's mine!"

Henrietta didn't couldn't take that kind of backtalk without issue any more. "I could take him, you know. I _am_ your queen now."

Louise tore her arm from her ruler's grasp, causing her dress to rip unnecessarily. "No you- You're poking fun at me again; that's not fair Henrietta!"

The young monarch giggled, and twitched the curtains closed. "You know, I didn't just give you any old mansion."

"Oh?"

"I must confess I had a few ulterior motives. Do you see that mirror over there? There's a secret passage to _my_ rooms behind it." She laughed delicately at her subject's consternation. "It's only fair. Your bedroom's just down the hall. I have to compete somehow."

Louise chewed her lip. It wasn't fair to deny Henrietta what she wanted after she'd lost so much. At least Saito, troublesome, annoying, wonderful dog that he was, wasn't a zombie. "All right."

"What?" Henrietta froze, then turned to face Louise, their faces close to touching as she stared deeply into a pair of deep brown eyes. "You don't mind if I-"

"I'm not saying you can have him all the time, but, once in a while. Perhaps every third day, except Voidsday." Louise's small hand reached out and held onto Henrietta's, and the pink haired girl smiled.

"What about Voidsday?" She stepped closer. Their noses almost rubbed against each other and Henrietta could feel Louise's breath, smell her scent.

"We've got to give Saito something, or else he'll start thinking he can wander into other women's clutches. I was thinking..." Their soft lips pressed together in a chaste kiss. "Us."

There was a whistling sound, starting high pitched and growing growing lower, that terminated with a great explosion, and the mansion shook beneath the pair's feet. They ran outside quickly, and realized what was attacking the manor.

It was a massive airship, oval shaped and flat grey. It hung high in the sky over Louise's mansion, and bright lines of canon fire, impossibly fast and firing at an incredible rate, arced from its balconies to the Tristainian airships and mounted mage-knights swarming around it. A loud voice echoed through the air. "Target acquired," then a hatch opened on the strange airship's underside.

A dragon knight, perhaps realizing that the target in question was doubtless his charge, swept into the open hatch as soon as he saw it, disappearing from view. An instant later the airship, and a great deal of the circling mage-knights, were incinerated by a massive fireball, and the burning metal skeleton rained down on the landscape in pieces.

One of the pieces was going to land nearby, almost on- Saito! He was just standing there, staring ahead, and he somehow hadn't noticed the battle. Louise knew he was stupid, but this was ridiculous! Henrietta wasn't frozen in shock, though, and with a quick gestured of polished wood and a muttered word Saito was caught up in a levitation spell and brought out of the danger zone.

Curiously, he was saying something, and still hadn't reacted to the burning debris that had almost impaled him. As Louise and her Queen ran toward him they were joined by their guards, who were scanning the sky and landscape for more threats.

One of them paused, and pointed in silent astonishment as one, two, three, four, no- five of the unusual airships dropped out of the high clouds, and a magically amplified voice boomed down from the one in the middle, which had a gleaming tower of steel scaffolding erected on it. "My subjects!"

The mages shook their heads and winced at a sudden pain, but didn't falter. The hardened soldiers in Henrietta's bodyguard likewise remained unaffected. Saito fell to his knees in supplication with the members of the serving staff that had made it outside.

"Soon we shall all be embroiled in a life and death struggle against the nobles that have oppressed you for so long. In this struggle, only complete faith in me can protect you from their lies, and their foul magic. Only total obedience can save your and your families' lives. Do not think! That is how the nobles have enslaved you! Let me guide you to freedom! I am Yuri. Obey me."

XIXI

Command and Conquer: Yuri summon, Mind of God (Sheffield's successor)


	5. Chryssalid

Do you know what this thread needs? Another bad end.

XIXI- _Summon's POV_

_Hunter/Killer/Breeder advances!_ The horror, covered in layered plates of purple chitin, chittered as it accelerated from its hunting crouch. In only a little more than an instant, it had moved across the room and infected the nearest, dodging the reflexive counterattacks of its prey. It was between the ranks of the targets now, and it noticed the one with a small weapon raising it.

A swipe of its serrated claw cut the offending thing in half, eliminating the threat. Strange, it wasn't wearing armor of any sort? Irrelevant. Another, and another, and the fourth fell to similar fates, leaving only one.

It barely had time to duck out of a nearby window as an incendiary burst impacted behind it. _Fierce opposition. Retreat/Heal/Plan needed. _It fled into the countryside with extreme haste.

XIXI- _Tabitha's POV_

The thing her classmate had summoned had only stood still for an instant before it acted, but that was an instant long enough. Tabitha saw the wicked claws, the menace of its shadowed face, its manic eyes, and promptly decided it would be best if neither she nor her friend were anywhere near whatever monster Louise had called up.

She knew a monster when she saw one. Apparently so did Professor Osmond, she noted with mild surprise, as they both acted. But the _thing_ moved first.

With preternatural swiftness it had moved between Osmond and a grouping of gaping students. Tabitha grabbed Kirsh by the arm and leapt back, propelled by a flick of her wand and a dot wind spell. Osmond, a fraction of a second slower (_because of his age, perhaps?_ She mused), trained his wand on the rampaging abomination, but hesitated. His line of fire was intersecting with his students.

The monster whipped around, and Osmond fell to the ground in two parts. Tabitha raised a wall of wind, it seemed to be limited to mele combat forms. Three more were dead in the time it took to blink. Kirshe screamed as she blasted at it with a fireball, but it dodged out of the window and was gone.

Louise was still kneeling where she had fallen, clutching her stomach, her face pasty and drawn.

Blood trickled down her shirt and onto the ground.

XIXI

AN- Guess who just had a night-time terror mission against snakemen with a roster full of rookies? So this is an X-COM summon, specifically a Chrysalid. Those things are insanely fast, and if they didn't have terrible AI, I would have lost everyone. You know how you kill Chysalids? You blow up the city, building by building, so they can't ambush you and kill an entire squad.

And yes, I did just infect Louise.


	6. Alternate Tabitha

A man stood in front of her, wearing a robe as blue as her hair. Despite his bulk, he wasn't very tall, and he wore a overly large floppy hat that obscured his face. He was sitting at the bar of the small town she'd been passing through, and had caught her attention remarkably easily.

Of course, it isn't every day a Chevalier gets called 'Titless wonder'. Context: "Hey titless wonder! Yeah you, with the staff." Truth be told, Tabitha'd never seen the man before in her life, and since she'd just had a particularly grueling day hunting down remnants of a disgraced noble family, she may have reacted more… actively… than normal for the placid girl.

Fortunately, from the sound of things the lance of ice the rude man just dodged only smashed through half the alcohol, and the price sign was written with entirely too many zeros for the product's suspected quality.

All in all? No great loss. Certainly nothing anyone would miss.

"You got that right short stuff."

Tabitha frowned at the rude, short, non-perforated man. Did she say that out loud?

"Sure did. You know, normally I prefer girls with a bit of meat on 'em, but you've got-"

"Flash Freeze."

The stranger continued talking, despite having his right arm entirely frozen. "- some serious mojo going on there, with that attitude and the magic, you're reminding me of me a little! Before I was so powerful, and evil, and stylish. Why, I bet you just got done killing off the women and children!"

"...Yes." Tabitha admitted. After all, what was the point of hunting down the hiding family of a noble marked for death if you _didn't_ kill them too? Letting them go wouldn't make any sense, and they'd stepped right in front of her target like they wanted to die!

Maybe it was a puberty thing, but probably not. Uncle Joseph didn't seem to understand either.

"So here's what I say. Why don't you come over here, we can finish off the alcohol, and I'll tell you a few stories, give you some advice from somebody who's been through it all before. Sound good?"

She considered it for a moment. "...Not supposed to leave witnesses."

"Then stand back, and watch the master work." The man, no, mage, held his arms in the air, then gestured to the obligatory crowd who had gathered to watch the spectacle. "Fire Three."

XIXI

Some time later, he was walking out of the smoking ruin of what used to be a small town with a red haired man in armor. The other man asked, "So, what'd you get up to Black Mage?"

XIXI

Tabitha laid awake on her bed, thinking about the man's, Black Mage's, words. He was a powerful mage, obviously square class. Had her uncle arranged for them to meet? Had it been random chance? Either way, his words… Something about them resonated with the slight girl.

"There are three steps" He'd said, "in the perfect plan.

"Step one: Acquire a competent but dim ally, somebody who's abilities don't make any sense, and someone who can talk your way out of trouble.

"Step two: Go on quests.

"Step Three: Use the authority of the quest-giver to get away with whatever you want to do."

Tabitha lowered her unread book and laid it on her bedside table. That was it. That was what she'd been doing wrong all these years. Mission after mission taken under her uncle's authority, and not once had she ever used them as a cover to get what she wanted. The idea was revolutionary!

But there was no one around the castle that fit the descriptions of the people she'd need. That was step one, after all, and she couldn't do step three without step one. There was a reason for that, but she was too tires to remember.

Perhaps she'd meet the people she'd need at the Tristain Academy of Magic?

XIXI[HN1]

It wasn't a puberty thing, Tabitha decided. Sheffield didn't seem to share the disgraced nobles' inclination towards suicide by ice spear, and neither did anyone else in court. Besides, puberty apparently didn't mean what she thought it did. Apparently, just because she looked just like her mother did when she was young didn't mean she'd end up looking just like her, no matter what her mother said.

No matter what her mother said to her doll, Tabitha. It was easier to think of herself as Tabitha, since her mother said that was her daughter's name.

She made a note that her mother's advice wasn't always correct. When she voiced this, King Joseph said it was because she'd been driven insane drinking elvish poison, but most people agreed that King Joseph was insane, and Tabitha'd always found his advice perfectly reasonable.

Possibly, she thought, it was a disgraced thing. But that couldn't be it either, because she was disgraced in the eyes of court because her mother knowingly drank poison. "There was a slight chance that her mother drinking the poison meant for her would have increased her standing", Tabitha had heard a courtier gossip once, "if the little crazy child didn't nail everybody that looked at her the- oh Brimir! Please I didn't mean it! Have me-"

Tabitha never did find out what he was trying to say. Why did people insist on doing things that get them killed? It isn't that hard to understand, and Tabitha was frankly quite miffed that she had to keep nailing people to the walls.

"Tabitha, you're not making any sense."

But all that was in the past. Now she'd found Kirche, that wonderful girl with the wonderful- Who didn't make a big fuss about doing things the simple way. Granted, she preferred the fun way, but to each her own. "Are you even paying attention to me?"

"Yes." Tabitha turned to face her older friend. "The duel is in the Vestry?"

"Yes, now hurry up! That cute commoner Louise summoned is going to fight Guiche!" She grabbed hold of Tabitha's arm and ran down the hall, dragging her friend with her. By the time they reached the crowd of students the duel had almost begun.

"I, Guiche de Gramont, and this commoner servant here, will begin out duel!" The blonde announced to the gathered crowd.

The commoner boy tried to set the rules to allow fists only, but Guiche overrode him, proceeding to summon the first of his golems before the Zero's familiar could object, a vaguely female armored shape pulling itself out of the ground. A simple spell.

Tabitha's attention wandered as the golems began to beat the commoner. It wasn't anything she hadn't seen before. Huh?

The familiar was saying something about Guiche cheating on his love with another girl, which didn't make sense _at all_. Guiche was wooing at least three girls, not two. Clearly this commoner was tragically ill-informed, and it wasn't Tabitha's job to correct him, no matter how cute he was. The 'duel' was proceeding completely to her expectations, Guiche gloating, the commoner getting beaten around.

Wait. What was that? Had she just thought that-

The commoner had his hands on one of the Valkyrie's swords, and there was a shattered shell of bronze at his feet.

As the duel reached its swift, and utterly unexpected, conclusion, Tabitha walked back to her rooms. Louise's spells still failed, but she'd summoned a familiar. No matter what she cast it always resulted in an explosion that destroyed the objects nearby, even shattering stone bricks reinforced with earth magic.

Tabitha wasn't sure that _she_ could destroy the academy's inner walls, but she'd seen Louise rupture them on two occasions, and that familiar…

They were people to watch.

_"somebody who's abilities don't make any sense"_

The next morning, she saw Guiche sitting next to Montmorency. That afternoon, he was walking next to a first year girl.

_"Someone who can talk your way out of trouble"_

XIXI

There was a robbery, and Headmaster Osmond ended up sending Tabitha after the thief. Louise and her familiar weren't getting along with Guiche and Kirche, but they were coming. She still wasn't sure who the competent one was yet, and she didn't want to get this wrong.

She had a group. She had a quest. All she needed was the…

Foquet the Crumbling Dirt was right there in front of her.

That's certainly convenient.

Well, there was Foquet's golem anyway. Or was the golem called Foquet, and the caster unnamed? How did they know the golem's creator was named Foquet if he'd never been caught?

The sound of the massive golem ripping the roof off the cottage was joined by the more familiar sounds of fearful and panicked victims, completely breaking Tabitha's train of thought. "What's going- Foquet!" Louise shouted, and Saito raised his sword. Tabitha began to cast, and Kirche followed in quick succession.

It was fairly easy to figure out who had the most experience with this kind of thing, Tabitha thought as she ran through the familiar steps in less than a second. Stack elements. Water, condense airborne moisture. Air, freeze . Air. Impart momentum. Complete. "Icy Arrow."

A split second later Kirche followed, with "Fireball!"

An arm-sized shaft of frozen air shattered against the golem's stone skin, and the concussive fireball splashed harmlessly off as well.

The lumbering golem raised its hand to smash down on the hapless four, but-

Wait, four?

Tabitha paused for a second and glanced around, but Guiche was nowhere in sight. Maybe she should have made sure he'd actually conjure his golems before hiding next time. Those golems were supposed to be distracting the larger golem while she chanted her spells!

Oh well.

Stack elements. Air, pressurize. Air, pressurize. Air-

She was yanked backwards as the golem finished its wind-up and released its punch, shaking the ground as its fist collapsed the house Kirche had just pulled her out of. -Air, release. Tabitha altered her casting as they fell, pushing the pressurized air downwards to cushion their fall. On consideration she expanded the spell to cushion Louise and Saito's as well.

Then she ran for it, dragging her taller friend with her as she kicked up a cloud of dust to cover her panic. Retreat.

Louise was screaming something about not turning her back because she was a noble, which was just plain silly; what did the poor crazy girl think Tabitha was? Tabitha risked a peek over he shoulder as she dove into a shrub. Huh. Apparently one of them _had_ managed to damage the golem, it was laying still while whoever was casting it repaired its leg…

And whichever of the two idiots over there that actually damaged the thing hadn't finished it off while it was down. Perfect. Did she have to do everything herself?

Tabitha grumbled as she pulled herself out from under Kirche and signaled Slyphid. If she got into the air, and out of the golem's reach-

But then the golem started to twitch uncontrollably, flailing its arms and legs and shaking loose clumps of stone, before finally falling to pieces to the accompanying sound of a long, anguished, scream.

Tabitha scattered the stone with a quick spell, and a few minutes later Guiche and Ms. Longueville came out of the woods from behind the golem. "Never fear kind ladies, for I, Guiche de Gramont, have soundly defeated the thief Foquet!"

What. Tabitha blinked. It was very dramatic.

"When I saw the golem, I immediately leapt into the woods in search of Ms. Longueville, but I was ambushed by the thief and securely tied! I was alone with Foquet the Crumbling Dirt, with only the beautiful Ms. Longueville to aid me!"

Ms. Longueville muttered something about finding the horse and stalked over to the path, blushing furiously.

Guiche continued his ovation. "Unfortunately for Foquet, tying up one as experienced as I mattered little at all, and I soon ended things and helped Ms. F-Longueville."

The green-haired woman returned then on the cart, still blushing furiously, obviously still riding the adrenaline high of being at the mercy of a scurrilous robber like Foquet. "We're leaving. There's nothing to see here, and you-" She pointed at Guiche, "You are riding up front with me!"

"You sly dog…" Saito whispered in awe, and Kirche giggled.

Louise smacked her familiar.

Tabitha tried to figure out what was going on. Both the secretary and Guiche's clothes were wrinkled, like someone had tied them up, and she'd heard the screaming start right about when the golem collapsed.

What was so funny about Guiche killing someone? It was about time, in her opinion.

XIXI

"There's no reason you can't come, Tabitha, except that the Princess told me to come alone." Louise explained. For some reason, the small girl insisted on coming with her to the gate.

"But it is a quest… I enjoy quests." Tabitha said, easily keeping pace. "And you are bringing Saito as well."

"Saito doesn't count." Louise said simply. "Besides, if I let you come, then I have to let Kirche come, and she'll want to bring Guiche."

Actually, Tabitha would have insisted on bringing Guiche, but that didn't matter, and Louise didn't know that anyway. "-And the Princess was most insistent that I not bring anyone else, since it was an undercover operation."

"Very well." Tabitha changed course, and began angling off to the forest to meet with her familiar. She knew what undercover operations were about, and it had been explained several times that she shouldn't take part in them. After the fourth time she'd shown up in full combat gear, vials of explosives clinking and wearing dark clothes, the young men who had asked her to accompany them had sent her away.

_Don't worry Tabitha. You're due for a visit from the puberty fairy by the end of the season. _

_Until then, just get by with log- reaso- good inentio-_

_… I'll think of something, just give me a minute._

XIXI

_Some Time Later_

"Gallia's power continues to grow, and soon I'll- I'm to marry a Germanian noble, to cement an alliance between us."

The windowsill was damp, and the breeze was cold. Not as cold as riding Slyphid through clouds, but still very cold, in Tabitha's opinion. But she ignored it, because it wasn't every day Tristain's crown princess visited someone who was apparently a childhood friend.

It also wasn't common for Louise to turn her familiar out of her room. She really should mention that breaking routine like that practically screamed that something interesting was happening… Later, for now, Princess Henrietta was speaking.

"But there's just one problem, besides marrying an older man I don't love or like," The princess' voice paused, then continued so softly as to be inaudible without the aid of wind magic, "and poison was invented for a reason."

"What's that?" Louise dutifully asked. "It seems that's a terrible enough fate anyway, I can't imagine if Count Wardes were a Germanian."

"It's not so much that he's a Germanian as it is that I may have accidentally sent a certain letter to a man I hold dear to my heart, the prince of Albion, and if it came to light, then dreadful things would happen. To the proposed alliance."

Louise was shocked. "You sent- You sent a love letter, and now you need to get married to a different man, and you want me to get the letter back?"

"And to make sure nothing..._ untoward_ happens to Prince Wales, yes Louise." The princess' words took on a theatrical tone. "Why, I shudder to think of all the terrible things that could happen to such an important mage with Reconquista lurking in the wings."

"You want me to make sure he's safe?" Louise hazarded.

"I want you," Henrietta stressed, "to _take care of_ him."

What part of this didn't Louise understand? Tabitha wondered. It was simple enough to her.

"So I'll make sure no one sees the letter you sent, and I need to make sure Prince Wales understands that he's in danger?"

"You need to make sure no assassins kill the prince while the two of you are alone, it would be such a shame if someone that knew so much incriminating and damning information passed it along to my enemies."

Finally, Louise understood. "Ah! So you want me to make sure he doesn't get taken alive and get tortured by the Reconquista!"

Or not.

Tabitha didn't hear the rest of the conversation. She dropped silently down to the bottom floor, cushioning her fall with a pad of air, then walked back to her room. She had to pack, and there was only so much Slyphid could carry. As she walked, pulled out a small book, and began to read in the moonlight.

XIXI

"How." Louise ground out through gritted teeth. "Did you all find out." She was at the small servants' gate, ready to leave on her errand for Henrietta, and with her dashing Wardes along, surely it would just be an errand, but there was a problem. For something her friend had only mentioned in the privacy of her room, to an audience of one, there were a surprising number of people who wanted to come along.

Kirche shrugged, and Louise was pleased to notice her fiancé's attention didn't waver, unlike her idiotic familiar's. "I was in the room next to yours, and the walls are pretty thin."

"True." Tabitha confirmed. It was disgraceful, the walls were only half a foot thick in the students' rooms, and weren't reinforced at all. Not only could any dot mage blow them down to attack the occupant with a storm of shrapnel, but a determined eavesdropper could reliably hear everything in the next room through their familiar's ears.

"And you! I suppose the harlot told you about my mission?" Louise waved her wand in the air for emphasis, and Tabitha took a small step to the left, behind her dragon, which was behind Saito.

She responded in a monotone. "Large window ledges. Thin windows. You broke routine, so I looked into it."

Louise closed her mouth, then opened it, then closed it again. "...Let's just go already." She grumbled, and walked through the gate, followed closely by Saito and Kirche, who was merrily chatting as if Louise weren't one step away from raining wanton destruction down on all present.

Tabitha met Louise's fiancé's eyes, and nodded. "Lightning."

Viscount Wardes replied in kind. "Snowstorm. It's good to know my beloved has powerful friends."

Nothing more needed to be said.

XIXI

Normally, Louise might have been tempted to intensify her relationship with Wardes. She still was, in fact, but there was one major obstacle.

Privacy.

Wardes had only been given funds for two rooms at the inn, and between Tabitha, Kirche, and Saito, the two fiancés were rarely alone for more than a few minutes.

They both fervently hoped that situation would change on the privately chartered airship that would take them to Albion.

XIXI

Airships, Tabitha thought to herself, were far too large. She much preferred riding Slyphid, who was both faster and more maneuverable in combat, not that she'd been through combat on her dragon yet, but still.

This particular ship had a full complement of hidden cannons, spare rigging, and what looked like a collapsible mast hung off one side. There was also, and here Tabitha took a second look, a much smaller airship tied up to the back, barely large enough for a single person.

Someone on this ship was used to their transportation breaking.

"Hey, short blue and violent! Not me, you!" Tabitha turned around from the 'escape airship', and found herself face to face with a familiarly small, pungent figure.

XIXI  
XIXI

ZnT / 8-Bit Theater crossover, normal summons.


	7. Dark Souls Reverse Summon

This one came out of nowhere one day. Enjoy.

XIXI

It was a bright Spring Summoning day at the Tristain Academy of Magic when Louise died.

There was a WHUMP of compressed air expanding outwards, and she was flung back by what felt like a giant's hammer, slamming limply into the stone wall. She could hear a voice, Professor Colbert's calm collected voice, rise in counterpart to her classmates' shrill panic, chanting a series of runes she wouldn't have understood even if her head wasn't spinning.

She couldn't move, couldn't speak, could only hear the roar of fire and burning air and feel its baking heat on her skin, hotter than the hottest oven and far more intense than her most destructive botched casting. But she couldn't see anything through the darkness, save the fading red warmth of the fire, which soon faded. With it faded all sound, all light, everything but the cold dark, and the wet stone floor she was laying on, unable to even breathe in her numb body.

Which was all Louise de La Valliere felt for a very long time.

XIXI

Introducing, Louise the Zero.

Welcome to the Asylum, Louise.

Welcome to undeath.

Prepare to die.

XIXI

Drip, drip, drip. Falling drops ripple the puddle around her, but Louise doesn't feel the movement of the water. A curious numbness has settled over her as she waits in the dark of the cell. It is a cell, she knows because of the iron-bar door, the dank walls that smell of rot and decay, signs of a warden far more cruel or negligent than any prison had in Tristain.

That was another thing she knew, after the first week in the dark gloom, watching the clouds through the barred hole in the roof high above her. She was not in Tristain, or even Halkegania at all. In Halkegania, her home, people could not survive without food for weeks and weeks and not feel a shred of hunger. Though not, she supposed, catching a glimpse of her reflection in the pool of water, without harm.

She was desiccated from her refusal to drink the dripping water, shriveled, a wreck of her former beauty. Her clothes were rumpled, stained, and damp, though she barely felt the chill of cold after the first few days, and her skin…

She looked like a corpse.

She threw a loose stone at the puddle, scattering the shriveled reflection, and curled back into her corner. Someone would come eventually, and they would let her out.

It was night, when the gloom was darkest, when it happened.

The faint light from the grate overhead was blotted out, and Louise woke to the sound of metal scraping on stone. She looked up just in time for the body that fell from the opened grate to splash water all over her face. "HAH!" She rasped, and stood up.

There was a person up there! Louise called out to them, "Haahp! Haahp!" but whoever it was stepped back from the light and vanished. They must not have heard her, maybe not drinking the stinking water was a bad idea. Her voice was soft and harsh at the same time.

Louise looked at the pool of water doubtfully, then began running her hands through the body's clothes. Whoever it was might have been carrying a flask of something when they died, and even strong spirits would be better than dirty water- it hadn't even been purified by a water mage, anything could be in there!

The ragged clothes only had one pocket, and that was empty. Louise gave the pool of water another considering look. Perhaps if she caught the drips before they hit the ground, but she didn't have a cup. She lay the body back down, and heard metal sliding on stone again.

But this time it was from _next_ to her.

Louise carefully leaned over the body and inspected it. No belt, no jewelry save a leather band-

She reached out, and gingerly lifted the thin leather band out from out of the shirt, revealing a small iron key.

The key fit in the lock to her cell, and the door opened for her.

The corridor ran for some while, bordered by doors to rooms. Louise ignored the moans from inside them, whoever was in there had doubtless been horrible criminals, to be thrown in cells as miserable as these. She just had to find whoever was in charge, explain herself, perhaps after a cup of tea and some biscuits, a ham, four- no five apples, some bread, and a hearty pie, and then find out why she looked like a corpse.

Yes, she nodded to herself as she came to a ladder set in the wall, that seemed like a perfectly reasonable plan. She climbed the ladder and exited the room above, only a little winded, to find herself outside.

She was in a courtyard, like the ones the Romalians like to put in the middle of their houses, with walls on all four sides and decorative plants on the borders to create the illusion of nature.

The illusion was somewhat spoiled by the faded green of the plants, and whoever was in charge of the prison really ought to have his charges out to maintain the grounds, because there was obviously no proper groundskeeper to do so. A pair of great iron-bound double doors were on the opposite wall.

The centerpiece of the courtyard was a smoldering fire pit, carefully lined with stones and with ashes piled around a longsword that had been driven into the middle of the pit at an angle.

It almost looked like the swords the mage-knights used, and Louise was reminded of her fiance, the dashing count Wardes. What would he think if he could see her now?

Her cheek was harsh to the touch, even with her deadened senses, and she laid her hand on the sword's hilt in fond recollection of her husband-to-be. Then the ashes gathered where the sword drove into the earth flared up in sudden heat, driving Louise back and making her cry out in shock and pain. She tripped, and fell against one of the doors, knocking it open as she spilled into another courtyard, this one bereft of greenery, decorated instead with large pots as tall as she was.

She picked herself up calmly and shot a suspicious look at the fire through the door. It must have been set to light on a fire magic trigger, she decided. Then the ground shook. It shook again. It shook a third time, and it was accompanied by the sound of a huffing horse, only many times louder. Louise turned around and saw a massive, fatty, grey/tan _thing_ fifteen feet tall swing a club down at her!

She jumped to the side, was still flung ten feet away into the wall. She couldn't feel her legs, and she slumped to the ground. She could still feel her stomach, though, and someone was crying.

It was very annoying, the crying. Louise wondered when they would stop, and why there was red everywh-

Darkness.

Louise opened her eyes and found herself sitting next to the fire with the sword in it. She wasn't injured. She could feel her legs, and hugged them tight to her chest.

There was something on the back of her left hand that she hadn't noticed in the gloom of her cell, a mark. It looked like a circle made of fire.

XIXI

Blood welled up from her throat and spilled down her shirt. Cause of death? Drowning. It was a change, that was certain. Louise had died… she didn't even know how many times, and she was grateful her senses were dulled so much. She clutched her cape around her. She could still feel cold perfectly well, perhaps better than ever, and her cape was still mostly intact.

She didn't even want to think of how painful dying might be if she could feel the full sensation of it. It was painful enough as it was, unless the damage was so severe the trauma killed her immediately, or she went into shock. Good news was, the giant club killed her quickly. Bad news was, sometimes the club only hit part of her, and the demon liked to see her suffer. Best news, she reappeared back at the fire every time she died.

Her clothes were nearly ruined, her linin shirt was nearly reduced to tatters, but her skirt was mostly intact, save a new slit up the side from when it had caught on a shard of broken pottery. Louise was thankful she'd had so much practice in, er- _escaping_ her attempts at magic back at the academy, because she didn't have a chance of living longer than a few seconds otherwise. It seemed like ages ago, but she could still remember her classmates, her teachers, her family. She'd give anything for her wand. One mis-cast and that big bloated thing would be blasted into pieces!

But she didn't have a wand, and didn't dare take the sword from the fire to fight with- even if she fancied she knew how. She'd seen mage-knights spar before, during exhibitions, but there was no sure chance she could kill the monster with it without dying, and…

And she didn't want to run the risk that the fire wouldn't bring her back to 'life' without the sword.

She could admit it. She was scared.

She didn't want to die.

But she had a hope. "There's a door. There's another door, on the other end, and I am going through it." She muttered as she stared to the fire, reminding herself why she kept going through that door. She was Louise de la Valliere, and she did not give up.

She didn't give up when she was ten and every attempt to make a breeze covered her in soot.

She didn't give up when she was eleven and her water ball shredded her best dress.

She didn't give up at the academy when she couldn't even levitate.

She didn't give up when her year-mates laughed at her failure.

She didn't give up when the older students taunted her!

She didn't give up when her Eleanore snubbed her!

Nor when even the professors called her Zero!

She was Louise, and she had a will of Steel!

She stood up, braced herself, and ran through the door, leapt right to avoid the downward stroke of the giant club, rolled under a swipe at her head, almost to the other pair of doors. Louise sidestepped another downward stroke, and leapt for the door, intent on knocking it open with her body, like she did with the last door. He fingers touched the rough wood of the door, scrabbled for the handle, but the latch refused to budge.

Locked.

She heard a grunt of exertion behind her, and a shadow fell against the door. Louise dodged left, and the club whistled just behind her. Louise spun, dangling off the club by her throat. Her cape had gotten caught on the club! She scrambled to release the clasp as the demon raised its club high in preparation for another swing. It was going to smash her against one of the pillars lining the courtyard!

Her stiff fingers released the clasp just after the swing began, accelerating her towards the wall with a strength that she'd seen shatter stone. Released from her cloak, she flew off at an angle, smashing into the wall, which splintered around her, and she rolled down a flight of stairs into darkness again.

She was hurt, but the dark wasn't the new dark of the temporary death before restoration at the fire, it was a more familiar dark. The dark of a place unlit by any light save a small hole. Around the hole she could see hinges and broken wood. It was a door shaped hole.

She was in another room, with a metal shaft digging into her back.

Another sword, which was dug into the ground around a pile of ashes. Louise touched the hilt gingerly, and the ashes flared to life. Her pain faded with the darkness, and Louise de La Valliere_ laughed._

She climbed back to her feet and looked around in the room, searching for another door. There it was. She tried the latch, which turned almost as smoothly as the door opened at her push. Louise stepped into the corridor, which was admittedly filled with water and rubble, but was nevertheless a way that didn't involve getting smashed to pieces by an oversized club.

THUNK.

It did, on second consideration, involve getting an arrow stuck into her chest that thoroughly ruined the last button on her shirt.

It also killed her.

Again.

XIXI

Let it not be said that Louise didn't learn from her mistakes. She did, assuming she thought she'd made one.

Getting repeatedly shot every time she tried to strike up a conversation with the archer convinced her that was a_ terrible_ idea.

She sidestepped into the doorway, gave the hallway a quick look, and then threw herself out of the path of the arrow as soon as she heard the snap-hiss of its release. The hallway was long, but there were doors lining the sides, and some were open, or broken down. She could reach the end if she just ducked from one open door to the next. Simple.

Louise darted through the doorway, first one direction then the other, her arc ending with the shattered entrance on the right. She ducked inside just as an arrow clattered off the stone behind her. The room was dark, damp, and utterly empty of anything that she could use to block arrows. "Looks like I've got to do this the had way, then." Louise grumbled, and poked her head out to find the next broken door.

THUNK.

"Missed, you butterfingered fool!" Insults? Dodging? Creative use of implements best left described? The shadows conspired with Louise's face to cast all but her gleaming teeth into darkness. She'd used the first two items on that list, and had _plans_ for the third item, and the person who was so rude as to shoot arrows down a narrow corridor.

Oh yes, she had plans.

XIXI

Louise twirled her new knife between her fingers and gave a jaunty whistle as she stepped out onto some sort of balcony overlooking the courtyard with the campfire. Well, she tried to whistle, but her lips were as shriveled as the rest of her was.

On a hunch, she followed the balcony right, which led her to another staircase up. Up was good, wasn't it? Up was definitely further away from the giant monster with the hammer, so Louise decided that was as good a way to go as any. The moment her foot touched the step she knew something was wrong. She glanced behind her, just a wall, but the end of the staircase above was shrouded in darkness, and Louise could almost feel the tension in the air around her.

There was… A slight creaking, rolling sound, like stone under great pressure. She wished she didn't know what that sounded like, but she did, and the sound was coming from above her. She took another step, and the feeling intensified. There was definitely something up there, she decided.

Something up there. "Oh Brim-" The iron ball, almost two meters tall and wide, rolled down the stairs in less than two seconds.

"-ir damn it!" Louise screamed in the dark of the room before the archer, and sat down in front of the fire in a sulk. "When I find my wand." She promised herself grimly. "Everything is going to explode."

XIXI

Louise was having a good day, on the whole.

She'd found her wand up the stairs the boulder had rolled down from, though immediately afterwards she'd discovered what being stabbed in the back felt like. She wasn't under any illusion that this was a unique experience for a Halkeganian noble, but she bet none of them had ever lived through…

Anyway.

She'd found her wand again.

XIXI

"Fireball!" Louise flicked her wand at the two corpses crawling through the gap in the wall, throwing them back with concussive force, and sidestepped again to dodge the third's crossbow bolt. "Fireball!" The duo was thrown backwards again, this time into a stone wall. "Fireball!" It was a long routine

Shards of bone clattered to the floor around her, and she looked down at it.

The demon.

It was almost four times taller than her, and was covered in a layer of grotesquely wobbling fat that sheathed coils of thick muscle. Its lips were pulled back, baring fanged teeth more vicious than any dragon's, and crags of bone grew from its joints. A jagged crown of antlers jutted up from its crown. "I can do this. I can do this. I can-" Louise chanted to herself. She could do it. She'd never feared any elf as much as this demon, but she could do it. She would kill it.

There was a ledge of stone that extended from the floor she was on, over the edge of the courtyard below, and that was the problem. The first time she'd fought her way to this vantage point, she'd blasted the monster with mis-cast fireballs from where it huddled near the door she'd escaped through. If only she'd been able to _properly_ cast spells, the thing would have died where it stood!

But she couldn't, and now the creature had taken to lurking beneath the overhang she was now standing on, out of sight. She'd have to drop down before she'd be able to cast at it, but that meant she'd be in range of its club again.

But she had to do it. There was another door in the courtyard below her, and she just knew that if she could get through it the demon couldn't follow. It was far too large to fit through, and the note she'd found… She'd found it on the body of what must have been a knight, wearing heavy plate decorated with unfamiliar blue and gold heraldry. His name had been smudged out, but now she knew that if she escaped from the asylum and rang both bells…

Well, she knew something would happen, exactly what was smudged out as well. But she knew for a fact that she wanted out of this place, and the knight's note was very clear on how to leave. _Defeat the demon, open the door, and go to the end of the path. A guide will find you._ So Louise braced herself, and rolled off the ledge.

The demon bellowed in rage as she continued her roll passed its wild swing, then leapt to her feet. "Fireball! Fireball! Fi-" The demon reared back at the impacts, but continued its attack, swinging its club through the stream of spells as it closed the distance between them.

Louise ducked under a sideways swipe, then leapt away from the demon as it slammed itself to the ground she was standing on just a moment ago. She raised her wand again, but the demon was too close, close enough that its tail whipped out and knocked her into a pillar as it turned to face her. Slow enough for her to keep out from in front of it, except that its tail had hit too hard, and her left leg refused to move from the knee down.

It raised its club overhead. Louise braced herself against the pillar behind her and raised her wand for one last spell, one last try before she died and woke again at the bonfire.

But the final blow never came.

A bolt of lightning slam-cracked into the demon's head from the side, nearly knocking it off its feet! It turned to the first set of double doors, which lead to the first bonfire, and another glowing bolt of awesome magic arced across the intervening space, burying itself deep in the demon's stomach.

"Stand and fight, creature!" A blurred form of white and silver leapt into the wounded demon with a shout, and Louise could hear the muted impact of his armored fist on its tough hide as he punched again and again. He was like one of the dragon knights she'd heard her classmates speak about, tall and bright and powerful.

Then the demon recovered, hoist its hammer high overhead, and brought it down on the gleaming knight with a sickening snap.

It was unbelievable, thought Louise. The club destroyed everything the demon hit with it, and the gleaming knight in white had _knocked it away with his gauntleted hand._ With a cry of "Have at thee!" He let loose a mighty punch, then another, and another. He was driving the demon back, inch by inch.

It could be beaten.

It could be killed.

Louise pushed her back against the pillar with her good leg, pointed her wand, and mustered her willpower again, filled with a grim resolve. She'd suffered too much to let someone else do all the work. "Fireball!" The demon turned to finish her off, but the knight stepped in close again while it was distracted, laying a thunderous punch into its knee just as Louise's botched spell snapped it's head back.

It fell, and the knight picked up the demon's club, which was nearly as tall as he was, and made one final blow.

CRACK!

Euphoria, that was the only word that could describe how Louise felt. Her leg was broken beyond all hope of repair, she'd have to die again to fix it, but the demon was dead. It'd never suffered more than a scratch before, but now it was dead! "Hahahaha! I did it!"

"I think we did it." The mysterious knight (where had he come from?) corrected, before he too began to laugh. "By Gwyn, that was magnificent! It was everything I could have dreamed of in this new life! Adventure, a challenge, cooperation!" He rounded on Louise and swept her up into his arms.

"Hey- Hey! Put me down you insolent, overgrown-" She sputtered, "The key, you fool! It's got a key on it!"

"Oh?"

"Yes! And put me down, this is embarrassing!" Louise's face was red

"But your leg is broken," He pointed out, "and it wouldn't be proper of me to make a lady walk on a broken leg when I can carry her. I'll put you down at the bonfire, then go back for the key."

The knight opened the door back to the bonfire, and set her down carefully before returning to find the key. Once he'd returned, he began to rummage around on his belt, which Louise noticed was festooned with pouches and satchels. "Here it is. I made sure to pack a spare before I came." He held out a green glass bottle, but as soon as the firelight touched it, it began to glow gold. "This is an Estus Flask, you refill it at bonfires. Drink some whenever you get injured, and it'll heal you up, good as new!"

"Thank you, did you find the key?" Louise asked the knight.

"Indeed I did! You seem like you've been here for a while." He said, and even though his helmet didn't move, Louise could feel his eyes taking in her tattered shirt and skirt. "Do you want to open the door?" He asked, now holding a large brass key in his hand.

The key was heavier than it looked like, Louise noticed as she dashed back through the now empty courtyard, stopping only to retrieve her cape and fasten it around her throat and followed by the cheerful knight's chuckles.

She held her breath as she slid the key into the slot above the ancient door's latch, and gave the knight a wild grin to match his own as the door creaked slowly open.

As the two of them walked into the light outside the asylum, the knight said. "It seems like fate has tossed us together. What do you say we help each other out? It's bound to be a lonely journey otherwise."

She considered. She remembered how her mother would talk sometimes, when she thought she wasn't near, with the members of Henrietta's royal guard. She remembered her years alone, even surrounded by her peers. She remembered how much more alone she was here. "That sounds wonderful. My name's Louise."

The knight boomed back, "And mine's Solaire."


End file.
